Giovanni Baglione
(Italian, 1571–1644)
Ceiling Design with the Assumption of the Virgin, a Prophet, and a Sibyl, ca. 1598
Pen and brown ink, brown wash
Purchased as the gift of the Fellows
In rare instances, Mariette did not inscribe an artist’s name in the cartouche on the mount, most likely because he was unsure about the drawing’s correct author. In a 1765 letter to Mariette, Giovanni Bottari—a fellow connoisseur—reassured him: “It is almost as those who write about art are struck by a curse, as everyone has made and keeps making incredible mistakes every day. And this is true also for me as I made mistakes on things I knew as well as my own name.”